Keyboard for pianofortes



M'. PHILIPPI.

CHROMATIC KEYBOARD FOR PIANOFORTES.

Patented Oct 11, 1859.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MATHIEU PHILIPPI, OF TROY, NEYV YORK.

KEYBOARD FOR PIANOFORTES.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 25,760, dated October 11, 1859.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MATHIEU PHILIPPI, of Troy, in the county of Rensselaer and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Keyboards of Pianofortes; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which Figure 1, exhibits a vertical section of my improved key board, which I call the chromatic key-board, taken in a plane parallel with the keys. Fig. 2, is a top view of a portion of the board, Fig. 3, is a front View of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

My invention consists in so constructing the upper surfaces of the several keys of a piano-forte, that, While the ordinary form of the key-board is preserved, portions of all the keys are brought to the same level in the key-board, the principal object of such construction being to facilitate the playing of chromatic passages, but other advantages being obtained by it.

To enable others to make and use my invention I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

A, A, A, A, are the keys, applied in the usual manner, and having their front portions, from the red line a, a, which rims through Figs. 1, and 2, constructed precisely in the usual manner. In rear of the red line a, a, which indicates where the keyboard ordinarily terminates or meets the upright portion of the case commonly known as the name board, the upper surfaces of the keys are all raised up to the same level, and slightly above the level of the tops of the black flat and sharp keys, as shown at b, b, in the several figures, and the part of the case known as the name board is placed far ther back than is usual to permit the greater depth of the key board rendered necessary by the construction of the keys with the raised port-ions 7), (Z. The raised portion b, 79, presents a perfectly level surface when the keys are at rest, and part of the raised portion I), of each sharp or flat key may be made with a black surface, that the character of the note which it strikes may be easily known by the player, in playing upon the elevated portion 5, when the lower portion of the key board may be concealed by the hand. By thus bringing all the keys of the piano to a level, I enable any player, of very moderate skill, to execute chromatic passages; as, the simple chromatic scale, runs in minor and major thirds, in fourths, in minor and major siXths and in octaves; also chromatic successions of chords, as for instance, the siXths with thirds, the octaves with thirds the chord of the diminished seventh, and in short all chromatic passages, after a few hours practice, with greater perfection than they can be played by the greatest pianists, and this at a velocity which could never be attained by a lifetime of practice on the ordinary key board.

The level portion of the chromatic keyboard may be played legato (slurred) or staccato. Rapid slurred runs may be played glissando, that is to say by merely gliding 7 5 over the keys with the surface of the finger nail; but glissando playing on this keyboard is not limited, as it is in the keyboard in common use, to compositions in the key of C. The chromatic scale being the same in all major and minor keys, passages for the chromatic key board can be introduced in all compositions.

The level portion of the chromatic keyboard may be constructed in front of that portion which is of ordinary construction, instead of behind it, by extending all the keys in a forward direction and extending the sharp and flat keys through cavities in the sides of the other keys. face of the so extended portions of the keys should be below that portion of the keyboard, Which is of usual construction. It is only in piano-fortes whose touch is very hard that I propose to adopt this arrangement of the level portions of the keys, as the arrangement in the position first described and illustrated in the drawings is preferable; and apart from the facility which the latter arrangement gives for chromatic playing there are other advantages in providing for playing so far back on the keys, viz: the fall of the keys becomes about one half what it is in the ordinary key-board, and

the keys being narrow, the player in playing glissando can glide over them more easily and yet get the runs with the greatest acct racy and perfection, and retain all the shades from the pianissimo to the fortiesimo; and in staccato passages the movement 1 The level sur- 9o of the Wrists Will be shorter and consequently maybe faster.

hat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is, 5 S0 constructing the upper surfaces of the keys of a piano-forte that, While the 0rdi-, nary form of the key board is retained, portions'of all the keys are brought to the same level in the keyboard, substantially as and for the purpose herein described.

M. PHILIPPI. lVitnesses R. S. SPENCER, WVM. FUSCH. 

